TechWhirl Sponsors

About TechWhirl

TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.

For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.

Opinions sought new pub/doc manage system

Hello everyone,
I haven't sent a message to the list in a while, but have enjoyed
lurking. Now I could use some expert input. I have recently gone to work
full-time for a high-tech manufacturer in northern Colorado. About 90% of
the work we do in marketing communications is constant revising/updating
of existing manuals as the engineering staff customizes and/or improves
products for specific customers. We have over 50 manuals ranging in size
from 50 pages to 500 pages. Our current publications package is Ventura,
which here nobody really loves.

Our challenge is to find a new publications package and/or combination
publication and document management software that will meet the following
criteria:
1.) For publishing-
-Allows creation of both on-line and print manuals
-Allows for easy creation and copying of tables
-Simplifies the importing and exporting of text
-Permits us to pull in graphics easily
-Simplifies indexing
-Has excellent formatting features

We are in the information-gathering stages of our project. We'd really
like to avoid re-inventing the wheel. So if some of you out there have
faced this situation or something similar, we'd really like to hear from
you. We'll listen to your war stories! And if you have some
recommendations for products or processes, please jump in! You can e-mail
me privately if you'd like. I will summarize and post the results of
everyone's input.
Thanks in advance,
Deb Kahn
(Advanced Energy)
dwkahn -at- lamar -dot- colostate -dot- edu
or
wileycon -at- aol -dot- com